Sally says she thought the soap was getting 'too sanitised'
Gentleman Jack writer Sally Wainwright has revealed that she introduced the dreaded Battersby family to Coronation Street to keep the soap true to its working class roots.
The Bafta award-winning writer was working on Corrie back in the 1990s when she invented the Battersbys – Les (Bruce Jones), Janice (Vicky Entwistle), Toyah (Georgia Taylor) and Leanne (Jane Danson) – who first arrived on the cobbles in 1997.
Speaking to The Guardian about why she wanted to introduce the family from hell, Sally said: “I felt the Street was getting too sanitised. It was the time of yuppies, so they put some yuppies in. And then they built the other side of the street and it just looked like Switzerland, all these white gables.”
Continuing on the theme of keeping the show working class in the interview, Sally also recalls her horror when Raquel Wolstenhulme (played by Sarah Lancashire, who Sally later worked with on Happy Valley and Last Tango in Halifax), went jogging.
“There was a scene where Raquel went jogging. As if Raquel would go jogging! I thought it was all getting a bit middle-class.”
She also remembered Sarah Lancashire being “really sweet” and showing her where the loos were!
Sally, who left Coronation Street in 1999, has of course gone onto enjoy enormous TV success with the likes of At Home With The Braithwaites, Last Tango in Halifax and Happy Valley.
Now, Sally, who also wrote for Emmerdale, has penned and directed BBC1’s Gentleman Jack, which will see ex-Corrie favourite Suranne Jones star as modern regency heroine Anne Lister.
Main picture of the Battersbys in Corrie: Kevin Holt/Daily Mail/REX/Shuttestock.
